This is the heading of a post on the Audiogon forum.
I dont normally spend any time on forums , but I advertise there and get feeds on my email, so ended up clicking on this one.
It ended up going the way of most posts- one-up-manship, guru pontification and commercial influences. No way I was getting involved in that one!
But I can make my observations here and it seems to me the poster is listening with his ears and not his heart.
Yes ClassD can sound pretty good in an initial listening session, and if your into frequency response, power and slam they do a pretty good job.
Long term I've never been able to settle into a Class D amp, I have a couple of Hypex in storage somewhere , and while I haven't listened to any of the newest models the basic operating principles of Class D remain the same- that damn low pass filter on the output.
Sure it gets rid of the grunge , but it also introduces phase problems , which screw up imaging and soundstaging , all the 3D stuff that helps to recreate realism.
Its weird to me, but there's a big pile of audiophiles that don't hear in 3D , or they dont think its important.
To them its all about frequency response, power and slam. Or detail- lots of it.
Which is fine, audio is subjective and whatever turns you on is right for you.
From my perspective however, this is a way of listening that is less subjective and more objective , more listening with the ears and not with the heart.
Let me post this page from a book I'm reading at the moment- Greg Milner's
Perfecting Sound Forever, An Aural History of Recorded Music. (you can click on page to enlarge)
Its more about digital V analog than ClassD but it makes the same point, albeit in a rather oversimplified way. That the newest, greatest technology isn't.
Another great quote from the book- "digital perfects approximation , analog approximates perfection".
You cant tell people that imaging and soundstaging are more significant to realism than frequency response and power , and I suspect these people dont want to listen to realism anyway- they want to listen to what they think is important in hi fi - slam/power/detail or whatever turns them on.
Fortunately there's just as many audiophiles who value a more holistic, ethereal way of listening that is focused on realism.
And these audiophiles value equipment that delivers , whether its tubes or solid state , maybe even class D one day, or an evolved version of it that can actually do 3D sounds.
I'm convinced that the closest way to realism is to have at least one piece of tube/valve equipment in your system, and the best method is to use a high quality ,accurate (not warm!) tube preamp.
I know from my experience the only way I could tolerate ClassD was with a tube preamp , but I'm not holding my breath waiting for the Class D guys to agree!
